I finally found another free piano for my family to work with.

Actually, I found two more free pianos.

The first was another really big model that had been cut down, with a mirror placed on top. The second, a spinet model, was much smaller.

Upon learning of my earlier discordant experience with hematoma, one of my friends who works as a minister and alarm system installation manager something-or-the-other called me to let me know that he would be willing to give me his late mother's piano. The very next day, I got a call from another friend telling me about another free piano that a fellow here in the county was giving away. "They're everywhere," I thought.

Pianos are like big pretty rocks, everyone likes to look at them but no one wants to move them.

After the last piano debacle, the piano tuner offered to ride with me to look at any future ‘great finds' that I came up with. Since the last piano looked pretty good to me, he obviously doubted my judgment. He also noted that there aren't a lot of good free pianos out there. "Oh ye of little faith," I thought. If it is heavy and it can be had, it can eventually be had for free. Or as my usual motto goes, "If it's free, it's for me."

According to my piano guru, the piano that belonged to my friend's mother is a spinet and was made in 1948. The top and sides are covered in what looks like it might have once been leather and there are a few scratches here and there. But inside, everything is in great condition. The spinet piano, though roughly half the size, was still very heavy.

Of course, compared to the ancient behemoth that I had moved only weeks earlier, this one was like carrying nothing. The other piano was very similar, though still slightly smaller, than the really big player piano that I tried to kill myself with.

As I was noting earlier, my friend happened to have inherited the spinet piano a few years ago after his mother died. His grandmother had bought the Worlitzer so that his mother would have a good instrument on which to take piano lessons.

After it came into his hands, he moved it to the mountains from his mother's Florida home and subsequently had it tuned and placed it in his house. Soon after that, he realized that he didn't have enough room to keep it. After that, he loaned it to a family to use for piano lessons and then got a call a few weeks ago telling him that they, too, were out of room due to a "Brady Bunch" marriage. The woman, who had two children, is marrying a fellow with three children. So I guess they're just one short of a full television show.

As for the really big piano, just thinking about moving it made my leg start hurting. Besides, the spinet was already tuned and in near-perfect working order.

I called up the fellow with the big upright piano and told him I decided to take the other one. The piano man agreed to ride along to take a look. Due to the size of a spinet, I thought I could easily get it loaded. The piano man, who brought along a cane in case I was tempted to ask for help, told me I needed to go back to pick up a dolly and a big strong friend. After lifting one end and feeling that it still weighed around 400 pounds or so, I agreed.

While back in town, I set about trying to find someone to help move my latest find. "You can lose a lot of friends moving pianos," the expert noted, cane in hand. Apparently, he had injured himself recently moving a piano into the home of my dear neighbor. After calling everyone I knew twice and finding them all oddly busy or not at home, I finally found out about a fellow who would work for cash and stopped by his house. I then started wondering how I could lose friends moving pianos if I couldn't find any friends to lose. Since such a cosmic puzzle could leave me searching the unknown reaches of philosophy, I opted to just hire the fellow and be done with it. Upon learning he wasn't home either, I started to walk back out to the truck when I noticed a friend's truck. He just happened to see me parked along side the road and stopped to ask what I was doing. That was his first mistake. After describing ‘the really small piano' I was going to move, with the aid of a wheeled dolly from a really high porch to a really low truck, not mentioning that it weighed around 400 pounds, I was able to talk him into helping me load it.

We rode over to the lady's house in separate vehicles, because my friend noted, "I want to be able to get away if anything goes wrong." That certainly made me feel better about the whole thing.

We only had to lift the piano once, to lift it onto the dolly. After that, we basically rolled it out the door and then lifted one end onto the truck off the porch and slid it on up. After the ride home, we set it down right in the living room and rolled it to its new home on the wall still scarred from the last piano. So if anyone needs a free piano, I know where you can get one. Just don't call me to help you move it; I'm quite sure I'll be absolutely busy that day.

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